Kansas City, Mo. - The Green Bay Packers narrowly avoided disaster late in the fourth quarter Sunday when coach Mike McCarthy took his good sweet time before finally requesting a replay challenge that played a major role in their 33-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Ultimately, referee Walt Anderson agreed with McCarthy and reversed a 36-yard pass to wide receiver Jeff Webb at the Green Bay 42 with 2 minutes 52 seconds left and the Packers nursing a 1-point lead, 23-22.

After that, it was as if someone had pricked the Chiefs' balloon. They fell apart.

But how the red flag got from McCarthy's back pocket to the grass at Arrowhead Stadium makes for a good story nonetheless.

Shortly after Webb pulled in the long pass behind cornerback Al Harris, Fox television ran a replay showing Webb with only one foot in-bounds. The groans of the Chiefs' public relations staff in the second row of the press box made that abundantly clear.

On the field, as McCarthy and the Packers waited to see for themselves, the replay didn't appear on the twin stadium scoreboards.

In the booth for the Green Bay coaches on the third floor of the press box, the same Fox replay appeared on their monitor. Joe Philbin, who was seated in the front row with secondary coach Kurt Schottenheimer and defensive line coach Robert Nunn, said they didn't have a great angle at the TV.

However, Philbin said Jerry Fontenot, the assistant offensive line coach, and one of the club's video staffers were in the second row of seats and saw immediately that Webb was out of bounds.

"I had the headset on," quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. "I heard Kurt and Robert say, 'Challenge it! Challenge it!' But I looked over at Coach and he must have been on the wrong line. He didn't hear what they were saying."

McCarthy, who improved to .500 (2 for 4) on replay challenges, indicated that he was in communication with Schottenheimer and Nunn.

"I was bitching about the play, to be honest with you," McCarthy said. "What was going on with the play. Because it was a big play. We were in conversation and they started screaming, 'Throw the flag! Throw the flag!' "

But the flag wasn't on the field yet and the Chiefs, who should have been in hurry-up mode but were not, already were breaking the huddle.

"I looked over for him (McCarthy) and I couldn't see him," Rodgers said. "So I stepped out on the field and it looked like he wasn't paying attention. So I just took it upon myself. I just wanted to make sure he heard it so I started screaming at him, 'Challenge it!'

"If that was my way of contributing today, good."

Actually, McCarthy said the staffer holding the trailing cords connected to his headset ("Actually, I think his name is Jerry," he said) was the first one on the sideline to hear the entreaties of the defensive coaches.

Regardless, Rodgers ran to his left toward McCarthy, who had his back to him, and made sure he got his attention. McCarthy yanked out the flag, moved 10 or so yards down the sidelines toward an official and threw it.

At that point, the Chiefs were probably 3 to 5 seconds away from snapping the ball with a first down at the Green Bay 42 needing just a field goal for perhaps the victory.

"That call came from up top," McCarthy said. "All the defensive coaches. When they saw it on the replay, that's when I threw it."

The Chiefs' publicists were bemoaning the fact that the replay inside the stadium had tipped off McCarthy. But no replay was shown on the scoreboard until Anderson had conferred with McCarthy and had gone under the replay hood.

"But even then the Jumbotron didn't look that clean," McCarthy said.

It was a close call, one that Harris would have remembered for a long time.

"That would have hurt," said Harris. "That would have sucked. The guy (Webb) pushed me off. That's what caused him to go out of bounds. I was complaining about the push."

"I was bitching about the play, to be honest with you," McCarthy said. "What was going on with the play. Because it was a big play. We were in conversation and they started screaming, 'Throw the flag! Throw the flag!' "

That was huge!! I seen it and was yelling Challenge it!! But no flag, then someone ran up quickly to MM on the sidelines and he threw. Thank goodness because I dont know what the outcome would have been without him challenging the play..

This is a perfect example about how important it is not to waste time outs.

If the Packer did not have a time out they could not have challenged the play, because of course, as we all know it was 52 seconds from being in the last two minutes when officials in the booth are allowed to call for a review.

Nothing pisses me off more then when a team is confused and wastes a time out. In 99% of cases there is no need for it if game preparation has been done well.

This is just one little sign of a well coached and well managed team....

Having that time out available.

Remember.... In Business (And the NFL is a business.) "Success" does not rise from within... It seeps down from the top.

It's a little scary that the Packers' system of challenging plays isn't more organized, but all's well that ends well. As for the time-outs, they had already used up two of them, which is more than one would expect going into the last three minutes of the game. Fortunately they still had one left.

Do you know who the guy was that told him to throw the flag. I actually rewinded that part over and over just watching MM's expression when a staffer said something in his ear and he had a cool reaction

Do you know who the guy was that told him to throw the flag. I actually rewinded that part over and over just watching MM's expression when a staffer said something in his ear and he had a cool reaction

Click to expand...

Was in the article ( I also saw it was Rodgers as it happened)

"I looked over for him (McCarthy) and I couldn't see him," Rodgers said. "So I stepped out on the field and it looked like he wasn't paying attention. So I just took it upon myself. I just wanted to make sure he heard it so I started screaming at him, 'Challenge it!'